Jill Perry says that the accusations of bullying, sexting, and mental abuse are false
Kaitlyn Clark doesn’t remember much from the 2017 Canadian National Championships. She does remember feeling so weak inside the ring that she could barely fight her opponent.
The boxer said she spent every waking moment in the days before the match in Quebec City trying to lose the more than 10 pounds she needed to make her weight class.
Clark said that she stopped eating and sat in a hot bath for hours to sweat out as much water weight as possible. She remembered that she lost consciousness at one point.
Clark would later write about that time, “I have never felt so close to death in my life.”
On the day of her weigh-in, she made sure her hair was completely dry and got on the scale without any clothes on. She just barely weighed less than 64 kilograms, or 141 pounds, which is the limit for elite women boxers in the “light welterweight” category.
“I was as white as a sheet. I didn’t look good, “Clark said this after seeing photos of herself after the fight, which she lost in three rounds. People who saw the fight told her it was a mess.
Clark would go on to win a national championship two years later, but not before this point, which she calls “rock bottom” and says her former coach, Jill Perry, forced her to reach.
Clark said that when she trained under Perry at Beaver Boxing in Ottawa from 2011 to 2017, she felt “controlled and helpless.” Clark said that she was harassed, mentally abused, and groomed, and that she was in an environment that made her have an eating disorder, think about killing herself, and put an end to her Olympic-track boxing career.
Now that Clark is 30, she has made a formal complaint against Perry to Boxing Ontario, which is in charge of 150 clubs across the province. CBC News has seen a copy of the complaint and dozens of emails, letters, and other documents that show a pattern of allegedly bad behavior by the coach.
Perry has never been found to have broken any safe sport rules related to Clark’s complaints. He was on Boxing Ontario’s high performance committee as recently as last year. The case against Perry is still being looked into by the company.
Perry said no when CBC asked him to do an interview. In an email, she wrote, “All complaints and matters of discipline are private.”
“I can only say that all of [Clark’s] claims are clearly false. I’m proud of my track record as a coach, and I think the process will clear me of all wrongdoing “Perry typed.
Clark, who now lives in Kitchener, Ontario, is the latest boxer to say that he was abused. Boxing Canada is the national branch of Boxing Ontario.came under scrutiny in 2022 after more than An open letter was signed by 120 athletes, coaches, and officials.Calling on the Canadian government to do something about the umbrella group’s “toxic culture of fear and silence.”
Boxing Ontario officials turned down requests to talk about “anything that might be going through our disciplinary process.”
CBC also got in touch with six people who are known to know Perry. Even though no one was willing to say anything on the record, one person did say that there is another side to the story.
Meeting the coac
Clark started boxing in her hometown of Sarnia, Ontario, when she was 18.
Clark said, “The first time I sparred, I cried because I got beat up. I wasn’t good at it.”
She loved the challenge, though, and got better quickly. She fought a few times and started winning tournaments after that.
Later that year, she moved to Ottawa to go to Carleton University and further her boxing career. She signed up to train with Perry, a former champion, at Beaver Boxing because a former coach told her to do so.
“She took me under her wing right away,” Clark said, remembering how their friendship quickly grew beyond the gym.
After training, Clark started going home with Perry, who is more than 20 years older than her. Clark said that’s when her coach, Perry, started getting to know her by telling her personal things about her life.
“As a teenager in a new place where I don’t know very many people, I felt very compelled to do that,” she said.
Boundaries crosse
Clark said that she would soon watch Perry’s dog and go to her coach’s family events. They became so close that Clark said Perry stood next to her at the wedding of her coach.
Clark said, “The line was always very blurry.”
She said there were a few times when their relationship changed in a way that made her feel bad.
Perry would share hotel rooms with her athletes when they went on tour for games, and Clark said that Perry would also share beds, which was against the rules.Boxing Canada’s policy for a safe sport,Which says that a person in charge can’t share a room with someone else unless they are the person’s parent, guardian, or spouse.
“Then she said, ‘Well, I have to touch someone while I sleep, so my foot will touch you,'” Clark said. “That just breaks that barrier of contact.”
- Boxing Canada is being punished by the International Boxing Federation.
Clark said Perry also talked a lot about sex, including personal details, and asked her about her sex life. Most of the time, they talked about how to use sex to gain power in a relationship.
CBC talked to a different boxer who was there for some of these talks and trips. Even though the witness didn’t want to say anything on the record, she did give a different point of view. She said that the events were just “girl talk” and were like a sleepover with friends.
Clark finds it hard to remember these things.
“From 18 to 24 is such a vulnerable age range, and if someone always talks about sex in that way, you start to think of sex as something scary, powerful, and controlling,” she said.
But, Clark said that as a young, driven athlete, she put all her faith in Perry. Clark said that when the coach told her to do something, she did it.
A toxic cultur
CBC looked at more than 30 emails from Perry that show she was the sender. In at least two of these emails, Perry insulted people based on their race.
In an April 2016 email, the coach named more than a dozen athletes and coaches she wanted to retire, calling one a “bitch” and another a “creep.”
In another email sent about two months later, Perry complained about having to watch over another athlete who she could see “running off with Gypsies.”
In a third email, Perry talked about how another athlete was from South Asia.
In July 2016, Perry wrote, “Stay at home and make your man some curry goat.”
In a fourth email from January 2017, Perry called the parent of a former youth client “nuts” for sending a “12-year-old developmentally delayed undersized kid” to train at another gym.
- Canada’s sports organizations say they can’t stop most sports abuse because they don’t have the power or the money to do so.
Clark never talked to Perry about these conversations, she says, and she would also get mean to other people while Perry was laughing.
Clark said she wanted her coach to like her, but that didn’t mean the young boxer wouldn’t be treated the same way.
“One minute it was fun, and the next it wasn’t,” Clark said.
She remembers in particular what happened after another trip to Quebec City, this time in 2013. Perry got mad at Clark because he didn’t invite the coach to lunch with the other athletes. On the way home, Clark said she had to use the bathroom, but Perry wouldn’t let her stop. Instead, he told Clark to go to the side of the road and pee.
“It makes you feel so helpless to know that someone thought it was OK to have that much power over you,” Clark said.
The fight to weigh les
Clark said that her coach’s power and control were especially focused on the young woman’s weight. This showed up in many ways, from unhealthy eating habits to getting yelled at for eating a “spoonful of ice cream.”
Clark said that Perry told her to fight in tournaments in the light welterweight class, but as she got older, it got harder for her to stay under 64 kilograms.
Clark said that was when Perry’s coaching took a turn for the worse.
Clark said she started running 70 kilometers a week and working out in the gym for several hours a day. She also said that she rode her bike to work every morning.
The boxer remembers that she had to skip for four hours straight at an international tournament while wearing a sauna suit.
“It got so bad that I worried that if I ate something, Jill would yell at me or weigh me, write it on the board, and scold me,” Clark said.
People “abused” diuretics to lose weight
In the spring of 2016, Clark’s nutritionist was worried about the boxer’s plan to lose 13 pounds five weeks before a tournament.
“I’m not saying we can’t get you to your goal weight for competition, but I don’t feel good about putting you on a diet with so few calories. This can cause a lot of health problems, “After looking at the boxer’s file, the nutritionist wrote the letter.
Clark said Perry told him the exact opposite.
- Canada spends a lot of money on sports safety. It doesn’t go where it needs to.
“I only drank for a few months at a time. I abused laxatives “said Clark.
Clark also says in the formal complaint she filed against her former coach that Perry told her to take more of her hyperthyroid medicine to speed up the boxer’s metabolism.
Clark wrote, “I did them because she was my coach and I trusted her.”
Perry said she couldn’t talk about the claims because an investigation into Boxing Ontario is still going on, but she told CBC that the claims are false.
Breaking poin
Clark said that by the end of 2017, she had a full-blown eating disorder, anxiety, and panic attacks. After she lost her fight at the national championships, she and Perry stopped getting along.
Clark said that Perry told her she should stop boxing.
Since a year ago, she has felt that her relationship with Perry is no longer safe. Clark started to train with a new coach.
Clark said that Perry kept bothering her. The boxer showed CBC a screenshot of a Facebook message that said Perry called Clark a “donkey” in a photo where Clark was tagged.
In November of that year, the boxer decided to move back to Sarnia, which was his hometown. At this point, she felt like giving up and even thought about killing herself.
“When I left Ottawa, I remember calling my mom and telling her, “You need to come pick me up.” I need to move back to Sarnia because I feel like the only way to escape Jill Perry and this is to kill myself “Clark said.
Clark said that she went to therapy and slowly started to feel better.
She started boxing again in her hometown, and in 2019, she fought and won a national title.
One witness said that Perry kept talking badly about Clark even after their time together as coach and athlete was over. Erin Forsyth, a coach from Mississauga, Ontario, remembers meeting Clark and Perry at a training camp in Montreal in the fall of 2021.
“I would say that Jill spent the whole time trying to destroy Kaitlyn’s character,” said Forsyth.
Forsyth said that Perry told other coaches that Clark was a dangerous fighter. She also remembered that Perry said the boxer needed to lose weight and asked other people to weigh Clark more than once, while other athletes only had to do it once.
The complain
Clark says that she talked about her relationship with Perry with the former head of Boxing Ontario in 2021.
Clark said that those talks never led to anything. Early in 2022, she gave the association two formal complaints. One was against Perry, and the other was against the former president for not reporting the abuse.
Clark said, “It was scary.” “I knew it would be hard because Jill Perry is so involved in boxing and, well, she’s in charge.”
She said that what happened next was frustrating and didn’t lead anywhere. Clark and Michael Williamson, who used to be the vice president of Boxing Ontario, think that the complaint was never properly looked into.
“The complaint was filed with a lot of proof,” Williamson told CBC, referring to Clark’s emails, text messages, and witness statements.
The board held a special meeting, and Williamson said that Perry’s suspension was made without consulting him.
Williamson said that the board stood up for the coach by keeping her on the organization’s high performance committee and “campaigning actively to keep Jill Perry in a position of power, no matter what the complaint was.”
“I tried to get the group to do the right thing, and I was basically kicked off the board for it,” he said.
The next year, Williamson decided not to run for the board.
Boxing Ontario officials didn’t want to say anything because Clark and Perry are still being disciplined.
ITP Sport, a company based in Ottawa, has been hired to look into the case. ITP Sport is an independent third party that handles sports complaints and is required by the federal department of Canadian Heritage to do so in order to keep getting funding.
In an email to CBC, Jennifer Ogg, the current president of Boxing Ontario, said, “We encourage anyone who is worried about mistreatment or other bad behavior in our sport to contact our independent third party.”
Unresolved issu
Williamson and Clark said there hasn’t been any news in months. The problem hasn’t been solved, and Perry is still coaching boxing at a high level in Canada.
Clark said that the process has made her feel even more traumatized and anxious than she did before. Since she filed her complaint, she’s been having psychogenic, non-epileptic seizures that her doctor says are probably brought on by stress.
CBC has seen a note from a hospital visit last year to the urgent neurology department that said Clark should also see a psychiatrist for her “PTSD-like symptoms.”
- Teachers want the government to look into the “widespread” abuse in Canadian sports.
“I couldn’t go to work. I lost my driver’s license. I couldn’t do boxing. I had a hard time going about my daily life. It made a big difference in my life, “she told me.
Clark’s boxing career is on hold for the time being.
She said that she had to turn down her chance to go to the Olympics. The boxer said that she has been in limbo for a year because her complaint hasn’t been resolved.
She still hopes that Boxing Ontario will do a thorough investigation of Perry, not only for her own safety but also for the safety of other athletes.
“I just keep moving, pushing it forward, and making sure people know about it because it’s important. Safe sports are important, and we should be able to play sports without getting hurt “said Clark.